In Ottawa, this Syrian baklava is the best baklava
Former refugee Aeman Alkadour sells his sweets at three Ottawa shopping centres, two farmers' markets and in the ByWard Market.

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Alkadour Sweets
Bakery at Unit 141 in Billings Bridge Shopping Centre; Kiosks at Billings Bridge Shopping Centre, Bayshore Shopping Centre, Carlingwood Mall; Stalls at the Parkdale Farmers’ Market and Manotick Farmers’ Market; 613-712-1008;?instagram.com/alkadoursweets

Prices: $10 for small trays of baklava
I took a crash course in baklava one October morning, in the western extremity of Billings Bridge Shopping Centre, where a baker who had fled his war-riven country was working hard to become Ottawa’s king of Middle Eastern-inspired sweets.
Aeman Alkadour arrived in Ottawa in 2016 with his wife and children after fleeing Syria in 2012. He’s 40 now, but as a trained pastry chef from a family of sweets-makers, he has been concocting treats since he was a teenager.
At first in Ottawa, Alkadour worked in local bakeries but couldn’t get enough hours. In 2018, he launched his own eponymous business, Alkadour Sweets. He had a similar business in Syria, except that he was selling wholesale, rather than directly to people with a sweet tooth.
Given the eye-widening array of treats that can be found at his business’s Billings Bridge Shopping Centre bakery — never mind its retail kiosks in that same mall, Carlingwood Mall and Bayshore Shopping Centre — Alkadour is some kind of unstoppable force when it comes to baking in his cramped kitchen.

Working mostly alone for as many as 13 hours a day, seven days a week, Alkadour produces up to 30 trays of confections daily, with more than 15 types of baklava and 75 kinds of cookies in his repertoire.
Without naming other countries, Alkadour says Syrian baklava surpasses those made elsewhere. “Another country, too much syrup, you can’t taste the phyllo, the pistachios,” he says. With his handiwork, he says, “You can taste everything.”

He takes pride in his delicate and delicious bird’s nest baklava, which requires a craftsman’s seasoned hand to twist strands of phyllo to make a tiny, crunchy enclosure for perfectly roasted pistachios.

These baklava are small enough and good enough that it’s dangerously easy to gobble them compulsively. While Alkadour says baklava in their package can last for a month, and then for another month in the fridge, the lifespan of my little tray of bird’s nest baklava was measured in hours.
A big fan of Canada, where his youngest child was born just three months after he and his family arrived in Ottawa, Alkadour now makes baklava and sweets with distinct appeal for Canucks, sometimes by special request.
“When the customers ask me for something, I try to make it,” he says.
So, Alkadour Sweets makes maple baklava, which one of Alkadour’s Syrian friends described to me as “yummy.” I think Alkadour’s Nutella-topped baklava is a cultural mashup that makes fantastic, indulgent sense.

In addition to his three mall locations, Alkadour sells his wares at the Parkdale and Manotick farmers’ markets. His ambition, he says, is to flood the market with his sweets, opening kiosks in all of Ottawa’s malls and then beyond the city.
“It’s a big dream, but I try it,” he says.
Do you have a favourite place to get a little treat in Ottawa? Send Peter Hum an e-mail to share your picks.
Other treats of the week:
Supreme croissant at Hugo Cafe
Smoked salmon croissant at Choux Atelier
Apple cider doughnut at Red Door Provisions
Maritozzi at Roberto Pizza Romana
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